Footnote to History Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa

Stevenson Robert Louis

Description

pubOne.info thank you for your continued support and wish to present you this new edition. AN affair which might be deemed worthy of a note of a few lines in any general history has been here expanded to the size of a volume or large pamphlet. The smallness of the scale, and the singularity of the manners and events and many of the characters, considered, it is hoped that, in spite of its outlandish subject, the sketch may find readers. It has been a task of difficulty. Speed was essential, or it might come too late to be of any service to a distracted country. Truth, in the midst of conflicting rumours and in the dearth of printed material, was often hard to ascertain, and since most of those engaged were of my personal acquaintance, it was often more than delicate to express. I must certainly have erred often and much; it is not for want of trouble taken nor of an impartial temper. And if my plain speaking shall cost me any of the friends that I still count, I shall be sorry, but I need not be ashamed.

Informations

• Publié par: Pub One Info
• Date de parution: 23 octobre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9782819918431
• Langue: English

Extrait

PREFACE
AN affair which might be deemed worthy of a note ofa few lines in any general history has been here expanded to thesize of a volume or large pamphlet. The smallness of the scale, andthe singularity of the manners and events and many of thecharacters, considered, it is hoped that, in spite of itsoutlandish subject, the sketch may find readers. It has been a taskof difficulty. Speed was essential, or it might come too late to beof any service to a distracted country. Truth, in the midst ofconflicting rumours and in the dearth of printed material, wasoften hard to ascertain, and since most of those engaged were of mypersonal acquaintance, it was often more than delicate to express.I must certainly have erred often and much; it is not for want oftrouble taken nor of an impartial temper. And if my plain speakingshall cost me any of the friends that I still count, I shall besorry, but I need not be ashamed.
In one particular the spelling of Samoan words hasbeen altered; and the characteristic nasal N of the languagewritten throughout NG instead of G. Thus I put Pango-Pango, insteadof Pago-Pago; the sound being that of soft NG in English, as inSINGER, not as in FINGER.
R. L. S. VAILIMA, UPOLU, SAMOA.
EIGHT YEARS OF TROUBLE IN SAMOA
CHAPTER I - THE ELEMENTS OF DISCORD: NATIVE
THE story I have to tell is still going on as Iwrite; the characters are alive and active; it is a piece ofcontemporary history in the most exact sense. And yet, for all itsactuality and the part played in it by mails and telegraphs andiron warships, the ideas and the manners of the native actors dateback before the Roman Empire. They are Christians, church-goers,singers of hymns at family worship, hardy cricketers; their booksare printed in London by Spottiswoode, Trubner, or the TractSociety; but in most other points they are the contemporaries ofour tattooed ancestors who drove their chariots on the wrong sideof the Roman wall. We have passed the feudal system; they are notyet clear of the patriarchal. We are in the thick of the age offinance; they are in a period of communism. And this makes themhard to understand.
To us, with our feudal ideas, Samoa has the firstappearance of a land of despotism. An elaborate courtliness marksthe race alone among Polynesians; terms of ceremony fly thick asoaths on board a ship; commoners my-lord each other when they meet- and urchins as they play marbles. And for the real noble a wholeprivate dialect is set apart. The common names for an axe, forblood, for bamboo, a bamboo knife, a pig, food, entrails, and anoven are taboo in his presence, as the common names for a bug andfor many offices and members of the body are taboo in thedrawing-rooms of English ladies. Special words are set apart forhis leg, his face, his hair, his belly, his eyelids, his son, hisdaughter, his wife, his wife's pregnancy, his wife's adultery,adultery with his wife, his dwelling, his spear, his comb, hissleep, his dreams, his anger, the mutual anger of several chiefs,his food, his pleasure in eating, the food and eating of hispigeons, his ulcers, his cough, his sickness, his recovery, hisdeath, his being carried on a bier, the exhumation of his bones,and his skull after death. To address these demigods is quite abranch of knowledge, and he who goes to visit a high chief doeswell to make sure of the competence of his interpreter. To completethe picture, the same word signifies the watching of a virgin andthe warding of a chief; and the same word means to cherish a chiefand to fondle a favourite child.
Men like us, full of memories of feudalism, hear ofa man so addressed, so flattered, and we leap at once to theconclusion that he is hereditary and absolute. Hereditary he is;born of a great family, he must always be a man of mark; but yethis office is elective and (in a weak sense) is held on goodbehaviour. Compare the case of a Highland chief: born one of thegreat ones of his clan, he was sometimes appointed its chiefofficer and conventional father; was loved, and respected, andserved, and fed, and died for implicitly, if he gave loyalty achance; and yet if he sufficiently outraged clan sentiment, wasliable to deposition. As to authority, the parallel is not soclose. Doubtless the Samoan chief, if he be popular, wields a greatinfluence; but it is limited. Important matters are debated in afono, or native parliament, with its feasting and parade, itsendless speeches and polite genealogical allusions. Debated, I say- not decided; for even a small minority will often strike a clanor a province impotent. In the midst of these ineffective councilsthe chief sits usually silent: a kind of a gagged audience forvillage orators. And the deliverance of the fono seems (for themoment) to be final. The absolute chiefs of Tahiti and Hawaii wereaddressed as plain John and Thomas; the chiefs of Samoa aresurfeited with lip-honour, but the seat and extent of their actualauthority is hard to find.
It is so in the members of the state, and worse inthe belly. The idea of a sovereign pervades the air; the name wehave; the thing we are not so sure of. And the process of electionto the chief power is a mystery. Certain provinces have in theirgift certain high titles, or NAMES, as they are called. These canonly be attributed to the descendants of particular lines. Oncegranted, each name conveys at once the principality (whatever thatbe worth) of the province which bestows it, and counts as onesuffrage towards the general sovereignty of Samoa. To beindubitable king, they say, or some of them say, - I find few inperfect harmony, - a man should resume five of these names in hisown person. But the case is purely hypothetical; local jealousyforbids its occurrence. There are rival provinces, far moreconcerned in the prosecution of their rivalry than in the choice ofa right man for king. If one of these shall have bestowed its nameon competitor A, it will be the signal and the sufficient reasonfor the other to bestow its name on competitor B or C. The majorityof Savaii and that of Aana are thus in perennial opposition. Nor isthis all. In 1881, Laupepa, the present king, held the three namesof Malietoa, Natoaitele, and Tamasoalii; Tamasese held that ofTuiaana; and Mataafa that of Tuiatua. Laupepa had thus a majorityof suffrages; he held perhaps as high a proportion as can be hopedin these distracted islands; and he counted among the number thepreponderant name of Malietoa. Here, if ever, was an election.Here, if a king were at all possible, was the king. And yet thenatives were not satisfied. Laupepa was crowned, March 19th; andnext month, the provinces of Aana and Atua met in joint parliament,and elected their own two princes, Tamasese and Mataafa, to analternate monarchy, Tamasese taking the first trick of two years.War was imminent, when the consuls interfered, and any war werepreferable to the terms of the peace which they procured. By theLackawanna treaty, Laupepa was confirmed king, and Tamasese set byhis side in the nondescript office of vice-king. The compromise wasnot, I am told, without precedent; but it lacked all appearance ofsuccess. To the constitution of Samoa, which was already all wheelsand no horses, the consuls had added a fifth wheel. In addition tothe old conundrum, "Who is the king?" they had supplied a new one,"What is the vice-king?"
Two royal lines; some cloudy idea of alternationbetween the two; an electorate in which the vote of each provinceis immediately effectual, as regards itself, so that everycandidate who attains one name becomes a perpetual and dangerouscompetitor for the other four: such are a few of the more trenchantabsurdities. Many argue that the whole idea of sovereignty ismodern and imported; but it seems impossible that anything sofoolish should have been suddenly devised, and the constitutionbears on its front the marks of dotage.
But the king, once elected and nominated, what doeshe become? It may be said he remains precisely as he was. Electionto one of the five names is significant; it brings not only dignitybut power, and the holder is secure, from that moment, of a certainfollowing in war. But I cannot find that the further step ofelection to the kingship implies anything worth mention. Thesuccessful candidate is now the TUPU O SAMOA - much good may it dohim! He can so sign himself on proclamations, which it does notfollow that any one will heed. He can summon parliaments; it doesnot follow they will assemble. If he be too flagrantly disobeyed,he can go to war. But so he could before, when he was only thechief of certain provinces. His own provinces will support him, theprovinces of his rivals will take the field upon the other part;just as before. In so far as he is the holder of any of the fiveNAMES, in short, he is a man to be reckoned with; in so far as heis king of Samoa, I cannot find but what the president of a collegedebating society is a far more formidable officer. Andunfortunately, although the credit side of the account proves thusimaginary, the debit side is actual and heavy. For he is now set upto be the mark of consuls; he will be badgered to raise taxes, tomake roads, to punish crime, to quell rebellion: and how he is todo it is not asked.
If I am in the least right in my presentation ofthis obscure matter, no one need be surprised to hear that the landis full of war and rumours of war. Scarce a year goes by but whatsome province is in arms, or sits sulky and menacing, holdingparliaments, disregarding the king's proclamations and plantingfood in the bush, the first step of military preparation. Thereligious sentiment of the people is indeed for peace at any price;no pastor can bear arms; and even the layman who does so is deniedthe sacraments. In the last war the college of Malua, where thepicked youth are prepared for the ministry, lost but a singlestudent; the rest, in the bosom of a bleeding country, and deaf tothe voices of vanity and honour, peacefully pursued their studi